Why you need to keep your trailer organized

Updated Mar 7, 2019

DSC_0231Keeping your landscape trailer(s) organized can be complicated.  Same with your shop.  You clean it up one week, and three weeks later it looks exactly like it looked before the clean up.

Tools and materials can be found tucked in and around everywhere.  No signs to indicate where things belong.  No designated place for anything… stuff is put back “wherever it will fit.”

When I see companies with shops and trailers kept like this, one thing comes to mind… waste.  And how much time, energy and lost sales opportunity is wasted because crews are:

  • Taking too long to find the right tools and materials
  • Taking too many trips to vendors because they don’t find out they’re missing tools/materials until they go to use them
  • Constantly working without the correct tools/materials and losing productivity
  • Doing work incorrectly/taking shortcuts because they don’t have the necessary tools/equipment – then going back to fix it
  • Cleaning and re-cleaning shops and trailers because there is no system to sustain the system after its cleaned up/organized
  • Breaking tools and equipment due to poor care/maintenance
  • Leaving a poor impression with customers and neighbors by leaving open tool trailers out front of sites that show off your company’s disorganization and sloppiness

Don’t underestimate that last point.  If your trailers and sites are a mess, people will overlook it while the job is going on, but they will not overlook it when it comes to paying that last check.

If your crews can’t take care of their own tools/equipment, what does that tell your customers about the level of care invested in doing their jobs with attention to detail?

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